Undated trackway called Tutbury Lane
Tutbury Lane, a trackway of unknown date. The trackway is mentioned in documentary sources and is visible as an earthwork. It runs from north from Bretford, towards Brinklow and eventually Tutbury. The name comes from links between Tutbury priory and the area.
1 Many writers have made mention of the curious ancient ‘covered way’ near Brinklow called Tutbury Lane. It runs up the hill from the old ford at Bretford to the left of, and more or less parallel to, the Fosse Way. It is little more than a deep ditch, only wide enough for the passage of a large wheelbarrow.
2 The trackway is now a bridleway and is very overgrown.
3Tutbury Lane really does go to Tutbury, without major diversions, if followed. There is a link between Tutbury and Bretford. Tutbury priory owned the tithes of Wolston. It was an alien house with the mother house being Saint Pierre-sur-Dives, just south-west of Caen, France. The priory was the administrative centre of the St P-sur-D in England and the abbott of the French house is mentioned in reference to the leper hospital of Bretford, a further link with Tutbury.
- For the sources of these notes, see the
- Timetrail record
- produced by the Historic Environment Record.
Comments
The section of Tutbury Lane ascending the hill from Bretford, if it was a narrow ditch, implies it was narrower than it is now – possibly it had a v shaped profile that has been filled in, or the banks were spread out by erosion and have since been cleared back. It does not run in a stream bed and runs straight unlike a “typical” hollow way. The present surface has been made up with building rubble. After it crosses the footpath from Brandon its nature changes, and becomes a slightly embanked trackway with ditching to either side. It is interesting that this section as it descends is not hollowed out, though on the same geology as the ascent from Bretford. At no point could I see any exposure of rock on the ascent.
If it is not a hollow way or as has been suggested, an ambuscade for ancient Britons to hide in before attacking hapless Romans on the Fosse way. Might it have been a boundary ditch, or even a “shaft “quarry for building stone? At the top of the ascent where it crosses a footpath, puzzingly it appears that the east edge has been banked up. Incidentally O.S.1:25,000 mapping no longer names it.
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